Again
by Grasspaw
Summary: The night that Mary Winchester died, a baby girl was born.


**Of course my first offering to the fandom would be this... thing. The idea locked its jaw around my brain and wouldn't let go, so here you have it. A thing. I've only seen up to 3x6, but there is one itty bitty spoiler for, uh... whatever that episode with Brady is? I don't actually know. I do know that one should not get on the internet if one wants to avoid spoilers for future seasons. And yes, I changed Jess's birthday. I do that. Anyhow... I own nothing.**

Mary Winchester almost laughed as she felt the thing - demon, spirit, warlock? - slash her stomach open and slide her up the wall without touching her. _Should have laid down the salt._

The ceiling burst into flames, and she felt herself burning. John was screaming, but Sammy had stopped crying now, looking up at her with his wide hazel eyes, a silent plea.

_Mommy?_

Even as everything went dark, she promised him that she would always come back to protect him.

Hundreds of miles away, a baby girl was born.

Her parents named her Jessica Lee Moore, after both her grandmothers, and she was beautiful little baby, then a beautiful little girl, and then a beautiful teenager. She was smart and dedicated and friendly and she just loved everyone. She was the perfect girl that every father dreamed of one day having, that every mother dreamed of her son one day falling in love with.

And if she sometime said strange things... well, that was Jessica, always with her head in the clouds. Or if she ever dropped out of a conversation with a distant look on her face... ha, that Moore girl, too smart for the rest of us, guess her brain's got more interesting than our conversation all of a sudden, huh? And if when she was little she named all of her dolls Sammy, and when she was older she would call out to him in her sleep... doesn't every little girl have an imaginary friend?

It was when she graduated high school that her parents began to wonder. Her family had always gone to Harvard, for generations on both sides, but when she was about to graduate she informed them that she was moving to California so she could go to Stanford, she was going to be a lawyer, and no, they couldn't change her mind. The arguments lasted nearly a week, until they finally caved and drove her to California. She was glowing.

Two months later, Jessica Moore met Sam Winchester - _Is it okay if I call you Jess? I dunno, it just seems to suit you_. A month after that first meeting - so normal, so perfectly normal, sharing her umbrella one rainy day at the beach - they began officially dating. He tripped over his insanely long legs while walking her back to her dorm, and she all but dragged him inside to put a Band-Aid on his scraped up palm.

"_Honestly, it's a good thing I'll always be here to protect you, huh?"_

_His lips quirked. "Protect me?"_

_She leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to the tip of his nose. "Always."_

It was the little things, things that wouldn't mean anything if they didn't happen so often. She insisted he come over an hour earlier than planned so he could explain her history homework to her - _seriously, my roommate's gonna be back in like half an hour and she's so loud I can't concentrate on anything when she's here_ - and a man was mugged an killed on the sidewalk two streets over at the same time Sam normally would have been there. She recommended he take a different route back from a football game - _you have to at least drive by this place at night, Sam, it's beautiful _- and there was a thirty-two car pileup on his usual route. She asked him to stop and pick up a textbook from a friend for her - _please, I really need to study this before the test on Wednesday_ - and the guy two rooms down from his dorm went nuts and shot three people in the hallway.

Coincidences, all of them. Lucky chance. Nothing to wonder about.

_Sam held her close as they cuddled on the couch, him grinning and her giggling. "You're nuts, Jess. How'd you know to have the first aid kit out, huh?"_

_She traced the bandage on his forehead. "I told you, handsome. I'm always gonna protect you. And that includes knowing when you bashed your head open on the doorframe."_

_He rubbed at the sore spot ruefully. "I swear the doors are getting smaller. I never used to have to duck when I walked into the building..."_

Sam had nightmares. She found that out after they moved in together. He would wake up screaming and crying, fingers twisted in the sheets as he trembled violently. She would make him coffee with enough chocolate syrup in it to be almost solid - "_Did you know my brother used to make me this exact same thing when I had nightmares as a kid?_" - and they would stay up late and watch infomercials on the TV until they fell asleep on the couch.

She always took care of him.

Then one night she came downstairs - _Sam's in danger must protect Sam I promised _- and met a man named Dean. An hour later, Sam was gone.

_Sam took one step off the curb, about to cross the street, when his phone rang. He stepped back, pulled it out, flipped it open... and watched as a truck barreled right past him, dangerously close to the curb and right where he had been standing two seconds before._

"_Sam? You there?"_

_"Jess... I think you just saved my life."_

_"Again?" She was teasing, but there was something off in her voice. "Well, I did say always."_

Two days later, Jessica Lee Moore heard footsteps in the kitchen and walked out of the bedroom to investigate.

_"Brady? What are you doing here?"_

_He smiled at her. "Just came to see how you were doing. Sam not back yet?"_

_She frowned. "How did you know he was gone?"_

_The smile widened, and his eyes turned black. "I know a lot of things."_

Two minutes later, she found herself pinned to the ceiling. And twenty minutes after that, when Sam walked in, she met his eyes and felt all the love of two lifetimes pouring through her.

Even as everything went black, she promised him she would always come back to protect him.

And hundreds of miles away, a baby girl was born.


End file.
